Tails of Darkness
by Thunder Magus
Summary: When a strange beam of darkness shoots down on the mountains outside of Ponyville, Celestia orders Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash to investigate. But will the ponies be prepared for what they find?
1. Chapter 1

It was a day among the most normal of days in Ponyville. Twilight sat in her library, wrapped up in her studies, surrounded by shelves containing countless books of every sort and genre. Rainbow Dash bounced a ball off her head in the bright afternoon sun, being careful not to miss a single bump. After all, she couldn't afford to have her reputation tarnished in such a manner. It could make her the laughing stock of Ponyville, maybe even all of Equestria. Well, perhaps not that bad. But a blow to the ego was still a blow to the ego.

Meanwhile, in the forest some distance away, Fluttershy, infinitely more modest than Rainbow dash, opted to spend her time tending to the forest critters instead of showing off to the other ponies. She'd always been more comfortable by herself and the animals, so it was only natural she made her home a meadow clearing in the quiet forest: namely, a treehouse (quite literally) with several birdhouses of various shapes and sizes sticking out of the fresh green grass around the Pegasus' home.

Pinkie Pie went about her usual activities, prancing about Ponyville in her habitual cheerful manner, singing a random song and plotting the next big party. The innocent sparkle in her big blue eyes accented the ever-present smile on her face.

As such an average day, it was quite a shock for those ponies outside, namely Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash, to witness an enormous pillar of what seemed to be dark energy, pour from the sky, straight down onto the snow-capped spires of a mountain in the distance. Though from that far away, it seemed no larger than a tree trunk.

"Oh my," Fluttershy said in her soft whisper of a voice as she witnessed the phenomenon, turning her attention away from the cute little squirrel she'd been talking to. "I wonder what that was?"

So bizarre was this event, it shattered Rainbow's concentration like a dropped vase and, consequently, a dropped ball. As the ball danced and rolled along the ground, Rainbow grimaced, turning her head about the town square of Ponyville just to make sure no one saw. Everypony else had their sights set towards the mountain as well, which meant her reputation was spared from the harsh jaws of failure.

Pinkie Pie, upon watching this pillar of darkness, stood frozen in place. The kazoo she held in her mouth dropped to the grass as she gaped in awe at what had just transpired.

_Uh-oh. I better go tell Twilight Sparkle_ Fluttershy thought to herself, and she made a gallop for Ponyville. Her meadow wasn't far from Ponyville itself, thankfully, and she arrived just in time to catch Pinkie and Rainbow standing by the front door of Twilight's house, and fluttering as was Rainbow's case.

Fluttershy stopped to catch her breath and the door to the treehouse opened, revealing Twilight Sparkle with Spike perched on her back.

Wide-eyed, Pinkie Pie lifted a hoof and proceeded to shout. "Twilight! A big, dark, scary,"

"Pillar of darkness just shot down from the sky and landed on the mountain," Twilight interrupted. "I know. Princess Celestia already told me all about it."

"Oh, great!" Rainbow Dash said. She hovered in the air a few feet away from the door, folding her arms with her brownish-red eyes set in a cross gaze. "And I'll bet she wants US to go check it out!"

"Yes," Twilight replied, leading the other ponies away from her doorsteps and into the middle of town, where most of the residents had resumed their business. Those that weren't were whispering to each other about the strange black pillar.

"Hey, what's with this 'we' stuff?" Spike asked.

Fluttershy, holding up the rear of the group, shifted her body into a low position as she eased herself away from the others. A gleam of fear glazed her eyes. "But…but…"

Twilight glanced over her shoulder. "No buts, Fluttershy. We have a job to do."

Fluttershy closed her eyes tight and gave off her characteristic nervous squeak."I say we go check it out!" Pinkie Pie quickly regained her cheerful tone, springing about the yard like a rabbit that had one too many cans of caffeinated soda. "It could be fun! Oh! What if it's a visitor from another world? We could throw him a great big party with cake and ice cream and…"

"Don't be ridiculous, Pinkie Pie," Twilight shook her head at the pink pony's energetic display. "The chances of someone from another world coming to Equestria are one in several million."

Pinkie Pie blew on a blue balloon during Twilight's lecture. She seemed to give a lot of them, and never made much sense. By the time Twilight finished and the balloon had grown to the size of a basketball, it popped with a loud BANG!, sending Fluttershy streaking into a nearby bush to hide. The concussion knocked Pinkie down to her haunches, dazed-eyed.

Rainbow Dash groaned and did a facehoof. "Alright, girls. It's not like we have anything better to do," she said as she lowered herself to the ground. Fighting a sly grin the best she could, Rainbow knew this would be the perfect opportunity to find out what had so nearly humiliated her, and give it a good thrashing.

"This is serious, girls!" Twilight said, "whatever caused that strange black pillar could envelop all of Ponyville in darkness!"

"So what are we supposed to do about it? Bring a nightlight?" Spike asked.

This time it was Twilight's turn to do a facehoof. Was she the ONLY one who took anything seriously? It wasn't like she WANTED to go, it was Celestia's orders.

A pair of big, gentle cyan eyes looked on from inside the bush. Fluttershy determined it was safe, and tip-hoofed out. Once Pinkie had recovered from her short-lived daze, she approached the much shyer pony and gave her a pat on the back. "Sorry 'bout that, Flutter!"

"That's…okay," Fluttershy replied meekly.

"What was that? I didn't hear you. My ears are ringing!"

Twilight let out a frustrated sigh, complimented by an annoyed frown. "Come on, everypony. Let's go get Rarity and Applejack."

Without waiting for the others, Twilight headed for Rarity's house. Rainbow fluttered close behind, flanked by a bouncing, smiling Pinkie Pie and reared by Fluttershy.


	2. Chapter 2

A grand, snow-capped mountain seemed to poke at the blue sky several miles above Ponyville, where it silently watched over the town of ponies. Presently, six of them, all female, joined by one male dragon, made a trek up a steep cliff leading up to the jagged white spires.

"Dahling, do we really have to climb this mountain?" Rarity examined her front hooves to assure they hadn't sustained any cosmetic damage from the rough and rocky terrain. "I simply couldn't bear it if I were to chip a hoof!"

"Well, it is the only way to find out what that beam of darkness was," Twilight answered. Fluttershy quivered at the words, but held her ground.

"Twy's right, sug," Applejack said, looking behind her shoulder at Rarity. "We need to find out what the hoo-haw happened here."

"Don't be such a priss, Rarity," a streak of rainbow colors said as it flew past. "Our hooves were made for climbing!"

"So why don't you come down here, Rainbow Dash?" Pinkie Pie said, hopping along the cliff with an eyes-closed smile. How she managed to keep from missing a step stumbling back down the cliff was beyond the others. But this behavior was typical of Pinkie Pie, and went mostly unnoticed.

"Hello! That's what WINGS are for!" Rainbow snapped back.

Rarity lowered her head and gave off an exasperated sigh. Whose idea was it to climb up that filthy, dusty, dirty mountain anyway?

After another hour of climbing, fretting, bouncing and squabbling, the six ponies finally arrived at a large impression in the mountain wall, and Twilight gasped at what she saw. A black unicorn, twice as big as any of the ponies, hovered in one spot inside the cave. Its pupiless red eyes burned like hot coals, locked onto the visitors.

"N-Nightmare Moon?" Rarity asked. "It can't be!"

"No…this is something entirely different," Fluttershy whispered. She made sure to stay well back from the mouth of the dark cave.

"How can ya be sure?" Applejack stuck close with the others, aside from Fluttershy, as they approached the cave.

"I just KNOW."

"Uh...hello," Twilight said, daring a few steps forward into the dark unicorn's cavern. There was no response. "I'm Twilight Sparkle. And you are?"

"I am...Vanda. I have crossed over into this world to claim it in the name of the Dark Dimension," the creature said in a deep, gravely voice that gave off an ethereal echo in the stone walls of its cave. Somehow, it spoke without ever opening its mouth.

Rainbow Dash reeled back, eyes squinted in confusion. "How's he talking?"

"He must be using magic!" Rarity answered her.

"My kind seek a new world to inhabit. The Dark Mage has his eyes set here."

"But why?" Twilight asked.

"Our dimension is one with almost no light, to the point where it's nearly uninhabitable. There is more than enough light here to support my kind. Unfortunately, our kind change form based on the world we currently inhabit. These equine forms make this world unsuitable for us. In order to correct this problem, we must eliminate all the equine life forms from this world. That is why I have been sent here."

"So…you've been sent here to wipe out every pony in Equestria?"

"I am afraid so. The cataclysm shall begin in two days. I suggest you enjoy the time you have left on this world."

"Well, I'm sorry," Twilight said, lowering herself into a defensive stance. "But I can't let you do that." She closed her eyes and concentrated, summoning a purplish aura of energy around her single horn. With a loud shout, she sent a beam of magic from her horn at Vanda. The opposing unicorn not only made no effort to dodge the blast, his entire body glowed purple. He had completely absorbed the attack without harm!

"Hmph. Your rudimentary understanding of magic is infantile. Let me show you how that's done."

Through what Twilight could only conceive as pure magic force, the dark unicorn amplified the attack to twice its original intensity, and sent it right back at her. With no time to react, all she could do was close her eyes and brace herself. The spell hit with full force, sending her sailing straight out of the cave, followed by a hard stop against a large boulder near where the other ponies had been standing outside.

"Twilight, are you okay?" Fluttershy asked, eyes wide with concern.

"Somehow…" the violet pony groaned as she picked herself up. At least the sunlight was better than being inside that dark cavern. "I don't think persuasion is going to work."

"Naw, you just handled it wrong!" Pinkie Pie said. She closed her eyes in joy and began an energetic trot inside the darkness of the cave. "Hi, I think we got off on the wrong hoof! My name's Pinkie Pie, and I just wanted to say welcome to Equestria! If you come back to Ponyville with us, you can meet all our friends! I'll throw you party with cake and ice cream and…"

After an intense blast of arctic wind that made the other five ponies shiver even from where they stood beyond the mouth of the cave, a Pinkie Pie ice statue slid out of the cavity, ever-present smile still sculpted on her face.

Applejack tapped on Pinkie's casing of bluish ice with her hoof. "Pinkie...are you alright, shug?"

"It's...cold..."

"Hm," the baby dragon tilted his head as he scratched his chin in contemplation. "Guess we'll have to change her name to Eskimo Pie!"

Rainbow Dash narrowed her reddish eyes in anger. "That's it! I'm going in!"

Twilight opened her mouth to shout a warning, but quickly remembered that Rainbow had never been one to listen to reason.

"You're going back to wherever it is you came from…now!"Vanda summoned an electric field to envelop his body before the kick hit. This defense did not occur to Rainbow until it surged through her hooves. Electricity coursed through her body before the resulting charge of energy blasted her back out of the cave.

At first Twilight had thought she'd been imagining things, but she was sure the dark aura surrounding Vanda had grown even darker after Pinkie Pie had talked to him. Now, after Rainbow's turn, her suspicions proved correct. There was much less light in the cave than since they arrived.

"Um…girls…I think maybe…we should head back," Fluttershy said, eyes wide with fear. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash picked herself back up and shook off the pain.

"Are you kidding? We can't let him win!" she shouted. Though this was more a matter of her own pride now than it was saving Equestria.

"I don't think this is a fight we can win now, sugarcube," Applejack added.

Twilight glanced at the frozen Pinkie Pie, then back towards the mouth of the cave, then at her spectrumized companion. "Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack are right. We need to head back to Ponyville and come up with a plan. And think about Pinkie Pie! We have to get her thawed out, and quick."


	3. Chapter 3

"Achoo! Achoo!" Knees juddering, Pinkie Pie sat on a bench in Twilight's library with her bottom hooves planted into a bucket of steaming hot water. She shivered with her forelegs wrapped around her torso for warmth.

Pinkie Pie sniffled up the loose mucus her sneezing had discharged. All of it that didn't rocket towards Rarity's well-groomed fur, that is. The white unicorn let out a sigh as she lifted her forelegs one at a time to inspect how much of Pinkie's snot had landed on them.

Rarity placed one hoof on her hip and pointed the other one at Pinkie with a cross gaze. "Dahling, you really should cover your mouth with your hoof when you sneeze. This is way beyond rude!"

Pinkie Pie rubbed her nose with her hoof to wipe off the remaining nasal discharge. "I'b sorry, Rarity. I guess I caud a cold." Stupid meanie unicorn and his stupid ice spell.

"Ugh! Now I am all icky and-and slimy!"

In the air above the ponies, Rainbow fell on her back in a fit of laughter at Rarity's misfortune as the latter observed her messy coat.

"Ah-ah-ACHOO!" This time, a blob of green mucus flew through the air prior to splattering against Rainbow Dash's face, bringing an instant halt to her laughter.

Amused, Spike pointed a claw towards Twilight as he laughed out loud. "Looks like the joke's on you now, Dash!"

"Are you okay, shug?" Applejack asked.

After a sniff, Pinkie closed her eyes and feigned the best smile she could. "Oh yeah, I'b fide!"

"My goodness...you sound kind of stuffy," Fluttershy's soft voice added. "Let me cook you a hot bowl of soup."

During this discussion, Twilight had been off in a corner made by the bookshelves, flipping through a thick-covered book on common ailments-as well as various methods on how to cure them or at least lessen the symptoms. Suddenly, she looked up from the pages at Pinkie. "How about some tea? It says here a hot cup of tea works great for relieving cold symptoms."

An idea popped into Applejack's head, prompting her to take a step closer in wide-eyed excitement. "How's 'bout a tall glass of apple juice? Packed with vitamins perfect for fightin' colds!"

"Or," Twilight continued, "we could mix the tea and the apple juice together! I'll bet that would taste wonderful!"

"Oh, nonono," Rarity continued with a shake of her head that caused her curly violet mane to dance about. "What Pinkie needs is rest. Everypony knows the best thing a girl can do when she has a cold is to get her share of beauty sleep."

"You know what I do when I have a cold!" Rainbow Dash said matter-of-factly once she had repressed her anger enough to keep from tearing Spike's head off, literally or metaphorically. "I work it out! Exercise is just what Pinkie needs!"

Spike stepped forward to add his suggestion. "I don't know about you ladies, but when we dragons are feeling down, we always like a nice lava bath."

It wasn't her upper respiratory infection that sent another shiver across Pinkie's body, but the gruesome notion what would happen if she DID follow Spike's morbid advice. "Sorry, Sbike, I like my bads a couble dousand degrees cooler dan dab."

"Pinkie Pie, you sound positively miserable!" Rarity butted in before anypony-or dragon-else could give her friend such crude suggestions. "You must have your rest!" She shot a glare up at Rainbow Dash. "NO exercising!" Then a glare at Spike. "And certainly no dreadful lava baths! The stuff's filthy." Finally, she looked at the rest of the ponies in the room. "Although the idea of apple tea does sound quite exquisite. I think I could allow that, and a hot bowl of soup."

Irritated, Rainbow pointed both front hooves at Rarity from her hovering point. "What, so you're her doctor now?"

"Well," Rarity held one hoof to her chest with her eyes closed in defiance. "I don't claim to know much about medicine, but I do know that a sick pony does NOT need exercise."

Twilight shut her book and trotted over to the rest of her friends in the middle of the room. "Listen, girls. Right now we've got bigger fish to fry. We have only two days to stop Vanda from wiping out every pony in Equestria, now a day and a half."

"Oh, yeah," Rainbow Dash scoffed, arms crossly folded across her chest, "and just HOW are we supposed to do that? We can't even touch him!"

"I hate to admit it, but Rainbow's right…fer once. What ARE supposed to do about it, Twigh?"

"He's so dark…and scary," Fluttershy added.

"I've come to only one conclusion. It's not much, but it's all we've got."

By this time, the other ponies had learned to trust Twilight's intellectual prowess, rarely did she come up with a plan that DIDN'T work. They all moved in closer to signify interest.

"Well, we know that Vanda is a shapeshifter. He said his kind's forms change based on their surroundings, right? But there was something else I noticed. The more we irritated him, the darker his aura got. This must mean that his kind give off auras based on their current mood. In fact, I'll bet this is what is causing his entire world to be engulfed in darkness. If we could cheer him up, his aura might start to give off light instead of darkness. Then we might be able to convince him to head back to his world and show the others what he's learned. We'll not only be able to save Equestria, but his world as well!"

Six pairs of eyes stared at Twilight in silence for a few moments as the brains behind them tried to grasp everything she'd just said.

"Well, shoot. THAT should be easy," Applejack said with a raised eyebrow to imply sarcasm.

"Um…we could bring him bunnies," Fluttershy said.

"Pfft. Yeah, right! Might as well bring him a buncha stuffed animals while we're at it!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Well, bunnies always make me smile."

"Ooh, ooh, I know!" Pinkie Pie raised her hand like a schoolgirl hoping the teacher would call on her. She continued once all eyes in the room were on her. "We could make him laugh!"

The room went into awkward silence for a second time, and Pinkie Pie slowly let her arm down. "Whad? Whad I say?"

Twilight rubbed her chin with her hoof. "If Pinkie Pie's the only one of us thinking straight, we're in trouble."

"So, all we need to do is head back up that mountain and make that black unicorn guy laugh, right?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes. We leave immediately."

Hanging her head, Rarity let out a groan. "Do we really have to climb up that mountain again? My hooves are killing me!"

"Yes. It's going to take all of us working together to complete this mission."

"Well, can't reckon I'm too fond of this idea, but what the hay?" Applejack said after a sigh. "Think we might have an old clown costume in storage somewhere's"

"Alright, girls! Once again the fate of Equestria is in our hooves! Let's go make that jerk laugh!" As expected, Rainbow Dash was the first one out the door.

"Ooh, take be wid you!" Somehow, Pinkie Pie managed the energy to stand up from the bench and leap into the air on her hind legs. "I can bake hib laugh! I know I can! Ah-choo! Achoo! Achoo!"

Shaking her head in sympathy, Twilight glanced over her shoulder at Pinkie Pie, who sniffled and wiped her nose with her shank. "I'm sorry, Pinkie Pie, but you're sick. You need to stay here and rest."

"Bud…how are you going do bake him laub widoud me?"

Applejack put a sympathetic hoof on Pinkie's shoulder as the rest of the ponies went out the door. "I'll tell you what, shug. We'll mosey on over to your place and borrow some of your clown make up."

"Hmph!" was Pinkie's response as she sat down and placed her hooves back in the steaming bucket. She pressed her front hooves against her cheeks in disappointment as the rest of her friends left to hog all the fun without her.


End file.
